http://news.com.com/2009-1088_3-984352.html
If there was any doubt about the extent of the SCO Group's pariah status, the
Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco should dispel it.
Much attention at the two-day conference was focused on SCO's attack on Linux,
which the company argues infringes on its Unix intellectual property. But SCO
was neither a sponsor nor a speaker at the show.
The absence wasn't a coincidence. SCO Chief Executive Darl McBride was
invited, then uninvited, when conference organizers reconsidered.
"We thought early on that SCO has a story to tell and we should let them
speak," said Matt Asay, the conference's organizer. After SCO accepted,
though, Asay had second thoughts. "As I was driving home, I was thinking,
'Why are we inviting a circus show to the conference?'"
At that point, SCO offered $40,000 to become a platinum sponsor, SCO spokesman
Blake Stowell said. That was even more than the $30,000 that sponsor and
Linux fan IBM paid, Asay confirmed.
But the conference organizers wouldn't budge. "The way they've conducted the
case in public does fit the circus sideshow mentality," Asay said. "This is a
serious business conference. It needs to be conducted in a serious manner."
Asay didn't exclude SCO because he wanted a "rah-rah for open source"
conference, despite his day job as director of Novell's Linux Business
Office, he said. Microsoft was invited, he pointed out, and it sponsored the
show and gave several speeches.
(March 18, 2004)
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